Can You Guess These 10 Tires By Their Tread Patterns Alone? - Pond Beaver 2020

Apr 15, 2020 at 8:53
by Daniel Sapp  
Tires


When I'm walking around in the woods it's a far different pace than being on the bike. I'll often be on multi-use trails, and in addition to footprints, bear tracks, and dog tracks, there are plenty of tire tracks from bikes. It's always a game of figuring out what tire it is and then, depending on where I am, I'll often guess who rode that trail recently, based on the tread and line choice. Usually, I'm right, sometimes I'm not. Nevertheless, with all the new treads, it's become increasingly difficult to guess what tire tread matches what tire, much less the person on the bike.

With all of the new treads out, you might as well see how knowledgeable you actually are in the second annual Pinkbike "Name that Tire" contest. Not all of these are from Pond Beaver, just to mix it up a bit.

The rules are simple: No web-surfing for clues. Just make your guess and then click on the link below the image to see whether your answer was accurate. Use your back button to return to the contest page. Tally up your correct answers and enter the sum into the poll at the end of the post to see how you measure up.



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Pond Beaver 2020

Pond Beaver 2020

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Pond Beaver 2020

Pond Beaver 2020

Pond Beaver 2020

Pond Beaver 2020

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Pond Beaver 2020


How Many Did You Get Right?



Author Info:
danielsapp avatar

Member since Jan 18, 2007
476 articles
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71 Comments
  • 154 0
 Looks like a Minion... why is this not a thing yet
  • 35 8
 Looks like a Magic Mary.
  • 30 2
 @Eatsdirt: one of them looks like a Session.
  • 20 1
 @Eatsdirt: I guessed Magic Mary on 4-6 of those photos.
  • 3 1
 @kingbike2: looks like a Scott.

What did I win?
  • 9 0
 Yep, what I learned most here was that it’s pretty easy to dodge tire design patents!
  • 7 1
 Mary and Minion need to start dating.
  • 3 0
 @Eatsdirt: the Michelin DH 22 pattern is identical to the Magic Mary
  • 1 0
 @GnarAZ: serious question can you even patent a tread pattern? Clothing designs for example are not covered by copyright or patents
  • 2 0
 @jorgeposada: I think they're already cousins!
  • 1 0
 Perfect top response! Number 8 DHF, number 9 DHR2!
  • 3 0
 @jorgeposada: they are always hanging out together on my bike
  • 46 2
 Why would i recognize a bunch of minion clones when i can buy real minions for the same price?
  • 25 2
 Why would you buy a minion when you can pay even more for the teravail?
  • 1 0
 @4thflowkage: moar is betterer.
  • 28 0
 I got 10 of 10 1. Not a minion 2. Not a minion 3. Not a minion 4. Not a minion 5. Not a minion 6. Not a minion 7. Not a minion 8. Not a minion 9. Not a minion 10. Not a minion 7.
  • 21 0
 Magic Mary? DHF? DHR II? Nope they just all (with a couple exceptions) just look like them.
  • 16 0
 The last one deffo isn´t vigilante...It´s Judge, jeeeeez.
  • 1 2
 pinkbike... not the experts
  • 7 0
 I'll be the Judge of that.
  • 1 0
 Still waiting for a dirty dan and big betty combo on the hub.
  • 13 0
 What’s next? Can you guess to whom belongs these butt cracks? Seriously, keep it up, i find it strangely entertaining ...
  • 11 1
 Every tire in here looks like a Maxxis or Schwable... or some combination of the two. Are these companies hiring the same person to design their tires? Or is it as simple as tires have evolved to find the patterns that work, patterns that are more strikingly different are likely to be crap?
  • 2 0
 I read somewhere there's only a finite amount of efficient tread design, and we've come to that threshold
  • 2 0
 Have a look at motocross tyres. They all use basically the same tread pattern, regardless of manufacturer. Turns out that this is what works best. I'm pretty sure mtb tyres will eventually standardize at the same patterns, maybe with some variation between gravity and XC.
  • 1 0
 There is a vital mtb inside line podcast about the guy who designed a really famous maxxis tire (dhf/dhr?) and how he didnt get much credit , theres a go fund me for him so you can throw him some cents when you buy a dhf . really interesting actually.
  • 3 0
 Brilliant! This quiz is going to throw off all the minions when they realize there are other options. Should have put a Vee Snap Trail tire and a Eddy Current front tire in there for good measure.
  • 6 0
 No, I definitely cannot. Next question.
  • 2 0
 @ReformedRoadie:

Definitely fairly similar just looking at it. But when you look closer, its actually more different than a lot of the DHF/DHR2 clones out there IMO.

The Magic Mary has a row with 3 knobs across the width, every 4th row. The Michelin DH22's have a row with three knobs across every 3 rows. Not hugely different, but less of a copy than the Kessel, or the new Versus All Mountain.

I'm wondering what the retail will be on the DH22's though. One of the things I love about the Wild Enduro series, is you can get them for $50/tire all day.
  • 3 0
 Lmao didn't get a single one. Then again I only know the magic mary, hans dampf, dhf, and aggressor. Multiple times I thought it was one of those just to find I was wrong.
  • 1 0
 I got the brand right, but model number/name wrong for the Vittoria and DH34. I completely missed the Bontrager model/brand. Guess I've never looked at their tires much.

Also, most of these were newly announced/released tires that were covered recently, making it a bit easier than it would have been otherwise. Obsessive reading of Pinkbike during quarantine ftw?
  • 3 0
 Apparently PINK BIKE is not an expert source because you GOT TIRE NUMBER 9 WRONG!!
  • 2 0
 This. The tire in the image in the article is not the one with the sidewall shown for tire number 9. Same brand, but wrong tire. Thats a WTB Judge, not a Vigilante.
  • 2 0
 Link edited - thanks for catching that!
  • 2 0
 Most of the tires aren't even fully seated.
  • 2 0
 Pinkbike got #9 wrong... It's a Judge. Do I win a tire for spotting the error? I'll send my shipping details in the DMs. Cheers
  • 4 0
 I only got the aspen ... the rest were all minions, right?
  • 3 0
 1. shit
2. shit
3. shit
4. shit
5. super shit (this ain't bmx)
6. shit
7. shit
8. shit
9. shit
10. Sam Hill is a BEAST
  • 3 0
 Damn on #3 was convinced this was a DHR 2
  • 3 0
 What? No Farmer John's cousin or Panaracer Smoke?
  • 1 0
 No site,just Ground Controls and Psychos here.
  • 1 0
 I thought you were coming out with a tire called the grim donut, or is that just an insert?
  • 2 0
 "Hey! Thats's not a minion, it's a Magic Mary!" -Brain, every other time.
  • 2 0
 Quick way to learn who the PB tire sponsors are.
  • 1 0
 Not gonna lie, I just bought some of those kessels. That compound looks grippy af
  • 1 0
 First I thought was Schwalbe and 5 others I guessed Minion. That last one I swore was an Assagai. Lots of copy cats I guess.
  • 2 0
 A whole bunch of Maxxis clones that’s for sure
  • 2 0
 0-1, I guessed DHF a few times and they were lookalikes every time!
  • 1 0
 Would have been nice to have at least one tire that people actually use in there...
  • 1 0
 The metal can gave most of them away.
  • 2 0
 Looks like a minion...
  • 1 0
 why would I want my tire to look like I've just ridden through duck poop?
  • 1 0
 If you told me number 8 was a DHF i'd believe you.
  • 1 0
 It's a dhf
  • 1 0
 What are the ones in the title picture?
  • 3 0
 Kenda Hellkat + Helldiver
  • 2 0
 Let me guess, you want to see if you got 12/10 for extra credit?
  • 2 0
 @JSTootell: I only got the first two and the last one right. Only knew the last one for certain.
  • 2 0
 @Varaxis: I got 0. Shocker, I know.
  • 1 0
 Where'd you get the Michelin dh34 and dh22 from?
  • 1 0
 Wasn't a Minion or Magic Mary....doesn't matter.
  • 1 0
 Same - same . but different .
  • 1 0
 I almost missed my own tires.
  • 1 0
 The only thing I found here, is that Michelin tires looks like Maxxis.
  • 1 0
 All look like DHF. Aspen just weared down a bit more.
  • 1 0
 Half of these are just some kind of mix between a minion and magic mary
  • 1 0
 The 0-1 category should be 'don't know, I only ride Maxxis'...
  • 1 0
 DHF / DHR
  • 1 0
 This was a hard one!
  • 1 0
 Nope.
  • 1 3
 All this doesnt matter , i look at the Price first. All tires are good if you 're good ride and ride smooth!







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